In this episode...
I talk with songwriter and social worker, Dan Menz-Erb. Dan has played in the pop/funk band Holy Ghost Machine Gun.
If you Google that phrase, you’ll see clips from an 80’s televangelist who coined the rather interesting term.
However, your search results will not tell you much about the beauty of Dan’s poetry in his song, John Bagwell, which he shared with me in this podcast.
We discuss where he found his soul and let go of religious dogma that taught him to be afraid of people different from him, and his identity as a musician and social worker.
You could be high, you could be drunk. As long as you weren't actively shooting up in the bathrooms of our shelter, you were welcome.
A molecule of love
Just prior to recording this episode with me, Dan shared a solo acoustic version of a new song he wrote just after the pandemic started, called John Bagwell (listen to full song below). As someone who’s flirted with playing guitar since my 20s but committed more seriously to it in the last two years, I was captured by this song at many levels. It’s a heartwarming song that moved me and it meant a lot that he shared it with me when, as you’ll hear, he doesn’t often share or publish many of his creations.
At night back at home through darkness
'till the supermoon breaks above the treetops
turning me into a spec of dust
a molecule of love
we’re here for a moment then the moment burns away
I am blinded
I asked Dan about the vulnerability of identifying oneself as an artist and how he deals with perfectionism from interfering with innovation and creativity.
Dan Menz-Erb has been playing solo and in bands for over twenty years. Some of his most recent projects include Holy Ghost Machine Gun, a pop-funk band with a performance art bent, and Megasoma, a three piece garage rock band currently working on their first EP. Dan is also a Licensed Clinical Social worker, with a background in mental health treatment and homelessness issues. He is currently employed by the Veterans Affairs as a hospital social worker, and is pursuing a MHA/MBA degree in San Antonio, TX.